Have you been told there are two types of private proxies (datacenter and residential proxies) and you want to know the differences between them? Then you are on the right page.
In this article, I will be discussing the difference between datacenter proxies and residential proxies. It is important you know the differences between these types of proxies, You can visit Surfshark's blog to know more about the different types of proxy servers.
This is because the difference between a residential proxy and a datacenter proxy determines their usage and subscription cost. Before looking at the differences let take a look at what they both mean.
What are Datacenter Proxies?
Datacenter proxies use IP addresses that are not assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISP). These types of IP addresses are assigned by proxy service providers and are considered as cloud-based.
Proxy service providers have a good number of servers that are virtual in most cases. What these companies do is that they rent out these servers to their customers so they can use the IP addresses of the servers to surf the Internet anonymously. Because datacenter IP addresses are not tied to any physical location, their providers can afford to have a good number of them.
What are Residential Proxies?
Residential proxies are a bit technical compared to datacenter proxies. Unlike in the case of datacenter proxies where proxy service providers own the servers they sell to their customers, residential proxies aren’t owned by proxy providers. Residential proxies are the residential IP addresses assigned to residential Internet devices by their ISP.
Because they are tied to a physical address, they are trusted by websites. The working mechanism is somehow complex. When you make an HTTP request, the request goes to the residential proxy server which then routes the request to a real device in someone else’s home to the website.
Because the request is coming through a residential IP address, it is seen as more genuine and less subjected to scrutiny. The real device mentioned can either be a printer, router, mobile phone, or any Internet-enabled device in the house.
Let move into discussing the difference between datacenter proxies and residential proxies in detail.
| Datacenter Proxies | Residential Proxies | |
| Reliability | Less reliable | More reliable |
| Availability | More available | Less available |
| Speed | Fast | Slow |
| Subscription cost | Cheap | Expensive |
Reliability and Detection
Internet users employ the services of proxy providers to help them remain anonymous when they surf the Internet. On the other hand, many big websites are becoming smart in their proxy detection technique in other to prevent them from accessing them.
This is because websites are suspicious of people hiding their identity. What then are the differences between datacenter proxies and residential proxies in terms of websites detecting and blocking them.
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Datacenter proxies
These types of proxies are becoming targets of anti-proxy websites. Websites like travel agencies and other data-intensive websites have devised means to detect and block requests coming through proxies. Because of this, the rate at which datacenter proxies are discovered is quite high and as such, their reliability is decreasing.
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Residential proxies
Requests made by Internet users through residential proxies are difficult to detect and block. This is because they are made through real residential IPs that seem to the websites as genuine.
This makes them evade scrutiny of even the smartest websites. They become the proxy of choice among Internet users that want to scrap data from websites with smart proxy detection systems in place since the IP addresses used are from real devices tied to residential addresses.
Read More: Find the Best Residential proxies for scraping.
Availability
How abundant are these proxies is one of the things that differentiate them. This is because their availability has a huge influence on their usage.
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Datacenter proxies
Datacenter proxies are very much available in the market here is a great list recommend and tested Datacenter proxies by Rickyspears.com. In fact, a company can have many of them and operate them effortlessly. This is because datacenter proxies are not given by Internet Service Providers and there are no restrictions on how these IP addresses are generated. That is why a datacenter can afford to generate virtual servers and get IP addresses assigned to them. This is why datacenter proxies are very much available.
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Residential proxies
However, residential proxies are not as available as datacenter proxies. Like I stated earlier, residential IP addresses are assigned by ISP and are linked to home addresses. As a result of these, it is hard for a proxy provider to have a lot of residential IP addresses to sell to their customers. this then means that you are limited by the number of IP addresses you can get when your choice is residential proxies.
Speed
Because of the difference in the way datacenter proxies and residential proxies work, the speed at which you browse the Internet also varies.
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Datacenter proxies
When it comes to surfing the Internet using datacenter proxies, datacenter proxies are the fastest. This is because the requests are made using a server and as such, it is very fast when it comes to surfing the Internet.
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Residential proxies
Residential proxies are some of the slowest kind of proxies. This is because after sending your request, the proxy server does not send the request directly, it does that through a residential IP of a real device which reduces the speed at which you surf the Internet.
Price
How does price differs when you pair datacenter proxies and residential proxies. From the above, you can tell that there are huge differences between datacenter proxies and residential proxies and as such, it is logically wise to say that their prices should vary. Now let take a look at that.
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Datacenter proxies
\When it comes to subscription prices, datacenter proxies are the cheapest. This is because they are readily available and you can get a good number of them from one proxy provider. With just $1, you get a datacenter proxy from some cheap proxy providers. In fact, some proxy service providers give out their datacenter proxy servers for free. However, I won’t for any reason advise you to use a free proxy service.
This is because free proxy service providers have been found wanting in the act of making email addresses of their customers available to advertisers. These advertisers then use them for spamming purposes. You might also be a victim of phishing, malware attacked, and other forms of Internet attacks.
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Residential proxies
These types of proxies are expensive. I mean super expensive. Because they are not readily available, the ones available become pricy. Together with their genuine nature and the acceptability websites gives them, getting them is a pain in the neck because of their competitiveness. They are usually used by rich businesses and individuals.
Datacenters or Residential Proxies?
Which Proxies Should you Buy?
If you look at both datacenter proxies and residential proxies, you can see that they both conceal your identity. However, making a choice of which to use depends on your use sake and budget.
If you require speed from proxies, then buying datacenter proxies is the best even though some residential proxies like Luminati is also very fast. Your budget is also an important factor because residential proxies are quite expensive compared to datacenter proxies that sell as cheap as $0.65 per proxy.
However, when you require a proxy service that is reliable and leave no proxy footprint, the best type of private proxies to use in this case is a residential proxy.
Aside from the legibility and reliability residential proxies provide, there are no characteristics they have that datacenter proxies do not have.
Where to Get Residential Proxies?
You can buy residential proxies from residential proxy premium service providers. You can read our top 10 residential proxies article to discover where you can buy them.
If you are not buying from the 10 mentioned in that article, you need to do your research well else, you would be sold datacenter proxies as residential proxies.
Where to Get Datacenter Proxies?
Datacenter proxies are readily available. In fact, you can get them for free but I will advise you to avoid using any free proxy service. This is because there is always an ulterior motive you won’t discover until it is late.
Fortunately, datacenter proxies are quite cheap. You can get them for as low as $0.65 and their average price in the market is set at $1 for a proxy in a month. Many of the residential proxies I discussed in our top 10 residential proxy service providers offer datacenter proxies as well.
Conclusion
Dedicated IP addresses are some of the most reliable and best proxies out there. with them, you can access resources on the Internet without any form of censorship and restrictions.
However, dedicated IP addresses can be categorized into two types – datacenter proxies and residential proxies. These types of proxies differ in their speed of downloading from the Internet, their prices, acceptability by websites, and how readily available they are in the proxy market.
I will recommend you use residential proxies for websites that are strict on proxies and have systems in place to detect and block them. Otherwise, I will recommend you use datacenter proxies because they are faster and cheaper.
